Witch Hunt
by Mushmallow62
Summary: AU, sequel - of sorts - to The Plague. Aideena had been accused as a witch, she was to burn at the stake and yet she found salvation of sorts with two traveling brothers.


100 Challenge Theme

Through the Fire

She had no idea what day it was, she had no concept of time at all any more. It was all taken from her when those... She closed her eyes, pushing the memories away yet it didn't work, it _never_ worked.

She opened the door and noticed the men standing there with their torches, every single on of them glared at her and she wondered why. Before she could even asked the Mayor of the town came to her, ordering her to come with them and no harm shall come to her family...

_Lies._ She no longer had tears to shed for her family, they were already dead and gone. None of them stood a chance in the court where the other village women made up lies. She never argued with them, knowing her fate would come and she hoped her death would be quick.

She prayed every night when she could, when she didn't fear the men would try something on her. She mourned for her family and mourned for herself because no one else would. Although she knew her death would be coming soon the Mayor demanded from her to name the other witches of her coven.

"I know of none other in this town to worship the devil," She had said clearly to him and he glared at her; "I am the one who cursed your wife!" She declared, deciding that she had nothing else to lose, she was condemned to die; "I cursed for all the crops to fail and for the animals to die! And it will happen again!" She yelled out with glee, having decided to no longer fear what was going to happen to her. How could she?

_I will be with the people who love me. _She thought to herself as she continued to talk on until one of the guards hit her hard enough to knock her out.

"The sooner this witch dies the better," The Mayor nodded at the guard to take her away and she was thrown in the cell that she had been in, along with two other convicted witches for so long now that they had wondered if what the town called them was true.

"It's not true!" She argued with them; "How can you think that? You never worshiped the devil nor did you dance naked under the moonlight!"

"You just confessed," One of the women said accusingly; "After all the time you've been telling us you _haven't_ done it,"

"How can she continue to argue when the people have already decided her guilt?" The older woman said softly.

"But... She confessed! In the eyes..."

"The only one who should judge us is the Lord Above, do you not think He would deal with those sinners in a way that He sees fit?"

The young girl became silent and the tears began to fall; "I... I don't want to die,"

"Nothing will change there minds, unless a Lord were to interject with this," The red haired maiden sighed and leaned against the wall; "We all know that I am to die, no one can save me from this fate,"

"It tis a shame you were born with such hair, yet your parents never had such hair colour,"

"Am a child of the devil indeed," She said with a sad smile; "If you are lucky... Perhaps my confession would sway them enough to..."

"No, they won't, many have done it before and nothing happened," The old woman sighed; "We are just the unlucky ones, but once we are dead it will no longer matter, we shall be with our Lord in Heaven and all will be well with us up there,"

As the red head regarded her companion she got the feeling that it was her religious talk that made people believe she was a witch, or people were just jealous of how she spoke about the Lord Above.

She closed her eyes though, deciding to _try _and get some sleep.

X

When she woke she heard the young women struggle to get away from the guards who grabbed her and the old woman. With a start she sat up and began to reach out to the poor girl who kept trying to come back, tears rolling down her face as she was dragged out with the old woman walked onwards, her head up the whole time, with no fear in her demeanor.

Once they were gone she noticed the door hadn't been shut properly and slowly opened it, careful of any guard that were around in case she need to jump back and act all innocent.

_Like they would believe me._

But no one came, in fact she found that everyone was outside to watch the burning. She took her chance and ran, running as fast as she could without a glance back to the town that she had once called home.

She never stopped running until her legs gave out and she fell into a heap on the forest floor. Although she used to wander around the forest right now she was scared and had no idea what she should do now.

The she heard a twig snap and she looked to the side of her to see two white haired males walking by, she tried not to whimper, thinking that they were after her and going to kill her right there and then.

One of them looked at her and she gasped, struggling to get up and tried to run, only to fall to the ground.

"Hey..." He came up to her slowly and she saw the amber eyes and the red streak on the right side of his hair.

She scurried backwards until she was against the trunk of the tree; "You're from the town..."

"Er..." He looked at the other white haired male who shrugged; "What town? We've been traveling all over,"

"From the town over," She pointed in the general direction she had come from and he shook his head; "Where..."

"Tch, let's go Ryuuto," The older male said; "We haven't got any more time to waste,"

"Yes," He looked at the maiden; "Why don't you join us?"

"What? That's a bit... Improper," She said, startled and yet she didn't feel like he was a threat to her.

"You're the one out here on your own," The older male said; "Come on, we can't wait,"

Ryuuto held out his hand to her and she smiled; "I'm Aideena,"

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ryuuto and that's my brother Ryuuga," They began to walk on, her hand remained in his and she felt safe, safer than she had done in a long time; "So, why are you out here?"

"And alone," Ryuuga glared at her and she looked away; "Tch, those idiots in that village are having another witch burning," He wrinkled his nose and moved in another direction.

"Ryuuga where..."

"I know another village," He stated and they followed on.

"So?"

"I came from the other village... The one that had the..." She shuddered; "They've killed so many..."

"They were going to kill you," Ryuuga stated and she starred at him in shock, wondering how he knew that.

"So they thought you were a witch?" Ryuuto asked and she looked at him, wondering how they could be taking it so calmly; "But you're too pretty to be a witch, you don't look like you have anything..." He moved forward, invading her personal space and she took a step backwards; "I think they got confused,"

"_Ryuuto_," Ryuuga scolded his brother and he finally took a step back with a blush.

"Sorry,"

"Yes, they did want to execute me for being a witch," She admitted and wondered what they would do to her now.

"Well you'll be safe with us," Ryuuto told her happily and looked over at his brother who just shrugged and continued on; "We're just traveling, trying to find our father,"

"Your father? Where is he?"

"He was at war," Ryuuga replied and glared at his brother; "We are _trying_ to find a village to stay. We can't keep traveling forever,"

"I guess," Ryuuto said with a little pout, secretly he had enjoyed traveling, it was exciting and he saw different people during their travels; but his brother was right, they did need to settle down.

It wasn't normal for two brother's to travel all over the country, unless they were doing trade and they weren't.

_I guess Ryuuga wants us to try and have a normal life._ Ryuuto thought to himself, having pushed back the thought of his mother and the agonising way she had to die; which was the whole reason why they left the city to begin with.

However they found that everywhere they went didn't suit them, it was either to quiet or they were too religious. Both of which they hated and so they were trying to find a perfect place for them to lay their heads down, but now they had a woman traveling with them and Ryuuga found he had to take her opinions into account as well.

For a time it worked fine, they lied and said she was a cousin, which she didn't mind but as they traveled for longer periods of time Ryuuga could see how close she and Ryuuto were getting and he knew that the cousin routine wouldn't work any more.

"She's my brother's fiance," He had said and the two just looked at him in shock, although as they got their room and they looked at him for answers he explained; "You two aren't being like cousins,"

Aideena blushed while Ryuuto just looked at her; "So... Should we be engaged then?"

"Ryuuto," She smiled slightly and Ryuuga rolled his eyes.

"Just do it, makes my life easier," He moved to sleep as the newly engaged couple hugged; "Sleep! We have to leave early in the morning,"

"When will we settle?" Aideena finally asked him; "I feel like all we are doing is traveling, when will it stop? Why can't we live in a city like Edinburgh?" She saw Ryuuga tense up and Ryuuto flinched; "What? What is it?"

"Our mother died in that city... Due to the plague, we left and..." Ryuuto stopped, feeling the old ache of loss begin to stab at his heart, which he had thought had been buried deep. When he felt a tender hand caress his cheek and he looked at her.

"It's okay," She said softly and gently rubbed her cheek against his; "I'm sorry,"

"We don't want to go back... But if you..." Ryuuto began and she shook her head.

"It's okay, it will be painful for you to return,"

"Maybe we should," Ryuuga said suddenly and Ryuuto just looked at him; "Not because of the pain, but we need to go back. We don't belong anywhere else, it's our home. She won't be there haunting us, we just need to move on from the past,"

"I guess so," Ryuuto nodded reluctantly; "So, we'll go back,"

"Yes, in the morning we'll go home,"

The younger brother didn't feel like he was able to face the past that they had left, yet he knew that with his brother and Aideena he could do it. Even if he really wanted to be a coward and run away from it all.

"We'd be able to have a normal life," She said softly as she lay down on the bed while he went to share the bed with his brother; "I've never lived in a city before..."

"You'll see what it's like when we get there," He told her and she nodded with a small smile and he could tell in those green eyes of her's that she was excited at the fact that they would get to go and _live_ in a city, something she wouldn't have thought possible when she had been part of that small town.

_I'll just need to suck it up and try and..._ He closed his eyes, deciding that he would face it when he arrived there. _I'll go back, I'll remember you every day mother... _


End file.
